Jun 24, 2022 5 min read

The initial panic surrounding Stephon Tuitt’s retirement should have subsided. If it has not, the Steelers’ signing of defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi earlier this week should quell some of those concerns.

Don’t misunderstand, Ogunjobi isn’t Tuitt. In his last full season with the Steelers in 2020, Tuitt was one of only three players in the AFC to record double digits in sacks.

The problem is, the Steelers didn’t have Tuitt at all in 2021 and weren’t going to have him in 2022 – or ever again.

Instead, now they have a talented 28-year-old defensive lineman in Ogunjobi at a relatively cheap price.

Therin might lie the rub.

Ogunjobi agreed to a three-year, $40.5-million deal early in free agency to join the Bears. He then flunked his physical with Chicago, voiding the contract.

Ogunjobi, while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals last season, suffered an injury to his right foot in an opening-round playoff victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.

When free agency began, he wasn’t healed enough to pass a physical. Nearly three months later, he was healthy enough to pass one given by the Steelers’ doctors.

But, instead of getting a contract worth $13.5 million per season, he was forced to sign a one-year deal with the Steelers that could be worth as much as $8 million, if he reaches the incentives built into the contract.

Ogunjobi, however, is a player who was worth $13.5 million per year.

That should give you an idea of how he’s viewed in NFL circles. He did, after all, have 49 tackles and seven sacks for the Bengals in 2021 before his injury.

So, while he might not be quite what Tuitt was in his prime, he’s pretty darn good.

• With the hole on the defensive line filled, the Steelers still have enough money remaining under the salary cap to make more roster moves.

Adding depth at running back, outside linebacker or at offensive tackle could be attractive, though the Steelers might want to hold off on any of those signings until after the NFL’s cutdown date.

• One option as a backup behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith that isn’t getting talked about much could be defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal.

Yes, Leal is a true defensive end. But when the Steelers are in their nickel and dime defenses – which is about 75 percent of the time – that is the position the outside linebackers are playing.

The Steelers are having their outside linebackers drop into pass coverage now less than ever before. So, there’s no reason they can’t have a player such as Leal line up and rush the passer from the edge when they’re in their nickel defense.

• O’Neill Cruz is an interesting talent. You just don’t see many 6-foot-7 shortstops.

But let’s not put him in the Baseball Hall of Fame just yet. Temper the expectations. He’s bound to go through some young-player growing pains.

• The official Twitter feed of the Pony World Series sent out a tweet of a photo earlier this week that showed five alumni of the Youngstown Pony program who played against each other in the WPIAL baseball playoffs.

The tweet read, “Some recent @Dick’s Sporting Goods PONY League World Series Alumni from Youngstown, OH, recently faced off in the @PIAASports playoffs!”

The problem is, the five players – Burgettstown’s Nathan Klodowski and Neshannock’s Andrew Frye, Dom Cubellis, Jake Rynd and Colten Shaffer, all live in Pennsylvania and play high school baseball in this state, not Ohio.

This is not to pick on or single out those players at all. They are hardly alone in being players Youngstown has claimed as its own who need an hour or two to drive to practice.

That social media post, which was quickly taken down, highlights the way the Youngstown program bends the rules of PONY Inc. to put together its roster each year.

And PONY allows it to happen, knowing that Youngstown has kids from all over the place.

It’s a flat-out joke, and PONY Inc. should be embarrassed it allows it to happen, not celebrating it on social media.

• On the Youngstown Class B Baseball website, the home of that organization, the league’s mission statement reads, “We hope that you will join us in our vision of preparing local athletes to meet and exceed the opportunities that await them in the future.”

They must have a different definition of “local” than the one most adhere to.

I lived in West Middlesex when I was of Pony League age. It’s right over the border from Youngstown, which was about a 15-minute drive away. Even then, I didn’t consider Youngstown to be local.

But hey, as long as PONY allows Youngstown to get away with it, it’s fine right?